5/3/07

I've got nothing today but the internot has already bored me to sleep this morning. Did I ever tell y'all about the triple Weber manifold plenum I built for the VG motor? I seem to remember not telling that story the Monday after I did it but I don’t remember why. Anyhoo, here’s what I did. I was at the shop one Saturday morning looking for something to work on. John's car was in the main bay and I hadn’t moved the Seven over yet. I took the base of that VG-33 manifold, the one with the broken runners, and cut about half an inch off the top. This got me down into solid runner material again. I then took a section of 2” box section aluminum and cut it to length, the same as the front to rear dimension of the top of the manifold. This long rectangular box would be my plenum. I used the piece of manifold I had cut off to mark the box for holes and drilled them out with a hole-saw. These holes lined up with the holes in the top of the manifold. Next, on the opposite side of the plenum I took the same hole-saw and drilled “evenly” spaced holes for the carburetors to sit on. I drilled holes to bolt the carburetors on and did so. That is something that I'll have to work out if this plenum ever gets welded to the manifold though because there won’t be any way to bolt up the carburetors once it is in place and the ends are sealed. I had a long hard grok of the thing and decided it would probably work once the manifold was leveled, the carburetor bolting issue is resolved, the ends are sealed, and the plenum is welded to the manifold. Oh, I guess I'd weld up the injector bungs while I had the TIG running. I think a triple one-barrel setup looking up through the back glass of the Chickenhawk would be tits! I haven’t worked on the throttle linkage yet because I'm not sure if I want it to be synchronous or progressive. Synchronous would be the easiest to make but progressive might… well, the only reason I can think of is fuel economy. This car is so not about fuel economy. Perhaps, and this is a long shot, starting out on a single barrel might make a tad more bottom end torque. Of course bottom end torque will not be an issue in a 1,500 lb car with a V6. Now, it might make for some interesting throttle noises when the other two open up. That might make it worthwhile. We’ll see. Perhaps I'll make two sets of linkage and just see what works best. Yeah, I know, whichever one goes on there first and runs will be the setup it has for the rest of its life. Shut up. I can also see some serious mixture distribution issues with the progressive while it is running on the single center barrel. No, I think I'll probably go with synchronous now that I've given it some thought. The next big design versus style question on that setup is, “Do I go with the slant-cut ‘zoomie’ pipes or three individual air filters?” I don’t want to make a big air box unless the intake is invisible through the back window. Oh wait; I do have that dark tint on the back window, don’t I? Ok, maybe that whole aesthetic thing is moo. Ok, I need to concentrate on current projects, not future ones. But I was telling the story of the plenum build wasn’t I? Ok then, I guess it’s fine this time. So, George is back inside. I have come up with some plans for the next few visits to the shop, detailed yesterday. John wants to have another Datsun event between track events at Mineral Wells but we can’t think of a place to hold it. We need to figure out some place like the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco where we had an event one time. The Sonic on Hwy 80 out by my house had a car show last weekend. I wonder how often that happens. There are plenty of old shopping centers, with lots of vacant storefronts, which would probably welcome some exposure. Come to think of it, I wonder how much renting some storefront shop space would cost. Yes, I am now thinking about moving the shop into an old shopping center. I may have to look into that option. As long as there is enough inside space to work and store what stuff I don’t throw away, it should be fine. I'd think. Well, let me cipher and figger on that for a bit, because the supermodel needs me again. I'm back. I've been thinking about that storefront shop idea while I was away. It is still just an idea at this stage but it might work. I may have to go talk to the folks at Tandy Town on Hwy 80. There is a motorcycle shop in the old nursery on the end and damned few other stores still open in the place. I wonder how many have rollup doors on the back. Hmm, this is interesting. I'll discuss it with John and Gregg and get their opinions. Well, I've shot past my arbitrary page break stopping point so I think I'll shut up now. Have a day.